Hay River Reserve (Apr 10/06) - Elaine Lamalice believes young people these days are more interested in learning traditional skills and being on the land.

"They always tell me they want me to take them out on the land," she says. "They are beginning to find the peacefulness out there."

Lamalice is a youth counsellor at Chief Sunrise Education Centre on the Hay River Reserve.

She helps instruct students on traditional skills at the school's culture camp at Sandy Creek. And she and her husband, Robert, also introduce students to the land at their own camp along the Mackenzie Highway.

Lamalice describes being on the land as a time out for young people.

"While they take the time out on the land, they focus really good and they have really positive energy," she says.

She sees changes in the young people as a result. "They're starting to get along better."

Lamalice, 51, is among a number of people on the Hay River Reserve working to pass traditional knowledge on to young people.

She teaches crafts such as sewing and beading, and how to make necklaces and earrings. Lamalice also helps her husband teach snaring, wood cutting, fishing, and dry meat making.

"I go with him and sometimes teach the girls," she says. "It's a lot of fun."

They also recount Dene legends and stories to the young people.

Lamalice says she and her husband became involved in teaching young people after hearing concerns from elders, particularly the late Teddy Buggins.

"He said he was really worried about the youth," Lamalice recalls. "He believed they were going in the wrong direction. Nobody was there to teach them and guide them."

Buggins encouraged the Lamalices to get involved in instructing youth.

"From there, Robert and I started talking about it," Lamalice says. "We couldn't leave the kids like that. They just had no knowledge."

The couple became involved in passing along knowledge over three years ago.

Lamalice got her traditional knowledge growing up in Meander River, a Slavey community in northern Alberta.

"I was brought up with it," she says, adding it makes her very proud to be able to pass along skills.

"I would just hope more people would get involved and volunteer to teach this traditional knowledge and skills," adds Lamalice, who has lived on the Hay River Reserve since 1989.